Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Do you drive by the editor's house and shoot rolls of toilet paper into their trees when a night rain is expected? Or do you defend your plot twists on FB or Goodreads when someone gives your book a bad review?

Handling these things well is important. One does not want to turn off even one reader fan. They all have friends, and before you know it, your reputation precedes you like the smell of garbage downwind.

One of my authors happily saw the recent launch of her first book. And every review has been favorable, so far. She has been giddy with joy. And I, the voice of doom and gloom, remind her that one of these days, there will be that one reader that will say hurtful, hateful things. It happens to the best of the best, eventually.

“NEVER take rejection of your work personally unless it is accompanied by a punch in the nose”!Paraphrased quote of Ron Goulart

Ignore them.

And go after some fresh reviews to cover them up in the list.

When someone tells you they loved your book and can not wait to read the next one, ask them if they would be willing to write you an Amazon review. Explain how helpful the reviews are to authors. (the more reviews you have, helps your book rise up in the search engines, and can even convince sites like Amazon to advertise your title for free.)

Kristen Lamb, published author and
blogger said: Rejection sucks. There is no other way of saying it. Of
course, the clincher is that rejection is not only part of life, but it is a
necessary ingredient to the life well-lived. But, how do we handle rejection in
a way that is constructive? A lot of how we handle rejection stems from how we
view rejection. I have a saying: If we aren’t failing, then we aren’t doing
anything interesting.

“What stands in the way becomes
the way.” — Marcus Aurelius

In, The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials intoTriumph, by Ryan Holiday, he uses three titles in his outline for turning
our disappointments into success: Perception, Action, and Will. It is up to us
to alter our perception, practice persistence, and love every thing that
happens. Because as Marcus Aurelius also
said,“we can accommodate and adapt.”

What ways have you found to appropriately handle rejection and bad reviews?

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Need
inspiration for a character for your novel, short story, or even a
comic strip? Pay attention to your neighbors.

That
what a young cartoonist named Sparky did.

While
living for a time in Colorado Springs, Sparky was developing his new
strip and trying to build its audience. In the evenings, he'd play
bridge with a neighbor couple. Sparky and Philip Van Pelt had served
together in the 20th Armored Division.
Recently they'd been surprised to meet in the stairway of the office
building where they both worked.

“We grew up a few
blocks away and they would play bridge all the time,” said Philip
Van Pelt's daughter Martha in an article in the Colorado Springs
Gazette. “During that time, when they were all playing
bridge, he was developing the characters.”

Philip
Van Pelt's wife was named Louanne. In
1952, Sparky Schultz introduced to his strip a new character named
Lucy Van Pelt.

“Mom always said
... she was much nicer than [Lucy],” Martha said. “She was a
loving mother, but she was very bossy. She even looked a little like
her [Lucy], if you look at some of her old pictures, with dark wavy
hair.”

“[Lucy] really
does reflect a lot of her character,” said Louanne Van Pelt's son
David Merrill. “What he did with her, a lot of it was accurate. But
he was pulling out the eccentric moments instead of the normal
moments.”

Schultz lived near
the Van Pelts for only about a year before moving to California—and
to fame and fortune with his comic strip “Peanuts.”
But he continued to stay in touch with the Van Pelts,

Louanne
Van Pelt died April 6 in Colorado Springs at age 85. An
article in the Gazette said she left behind “three children,
a 'passel of grandchildren' and an enduring, if somewhat
ill-tempered, comic legacy.”

Monday, April 27, 2015

I grew
up on Bronte, Austen, Jack London, and much later, Mary Higgins Clark.

How do
you feel about change? Changes like:
get rid of dialogue tags, tell the adverbs to disappear, get deeper into the
POV, don’t head hop, omniscient is losing favor, and on and on and on.

Everything
in life changes. We all know that, but how do you feel about recent changes or
suggestions in the writing industry? Our villains and heroes used to growl,
snarl, bark, and sneer. Heroines would purr, coo, murmur, and sigh. And while
we still see that from time to time, it seems to have moved over for stronger
physical action around the dialogue. Do you like that, or do you miss the
hisses and chirps?

I
remember not long ago when women did housework cheerily, and husbands, after a
long day, responded impatiently. Children played happily, cats purred lazily,
and dogs barked aggressively. What happened to the good old days when folks’
actions and dialogue were always followed by an adverb? Did we need them to
beef up weak verbs, or was it just an old habit that desperately needed to
change?

Little
seems to be written in omniscient unless it’s by an author who has written that
way for decades and his or her readers expect it, accept it. Is that a good
thing, or has the push for a deeper POV in order to get to know a character
better the best style? Does it matter?

Will
you keep reading if there is head hopping page by page? Is it different for you
if the author is male? Will you tolerate more distance from the character if
you’re reading a male author? Do you only truly expect deep POV from a female
author? Warm fuzzies, touchy feely only from female authors? Inspy vs. secular
stories? Does it matter whether the story is plot driven vs. character driven,
or have we come to expect these changes across the board?

How do
you feel about changes, and how has it affected your writing?

None
of us like change, and for good reason. Sometimes it works for the good, and
sometimes…not so much.

Friday, April 24, 2015

This week my wife found a used copy of 50 Short Science Fiction Tales for me at a local thrift store.I was pretty excited! I was like a little kid
with a new toy and started reading it in the car on the way home. (No, I was
not the one driving.)

Short stories are great for us short-attention span readers.
You dive right in, and then in just a couple of pages you hit the punch line
and you’re left either saying "cool…..didn’t see that one coming”or maybe just "hmmm……that’s nice.” But doesn’t sci-fi really lend itself to this
type of quick story telling?

The copyright page says this book was first printed in
1963. The edition I now have was the twentieth printing from 1979 and it’s a
Perma-Bound library edition. I wonder how many students fingered through the
pages while the words floated through their minds.

One of the first stories, from sci-fi great Isaac Asimov, is
The Fun They Had. This little story is set in the year 2155, and
it starts out with a little girl writing in her diary “Today Tommy found a
real book!”

The story tells us that the little girl’s grandfather said
that his own grandfather once told
him that “there was a time when all stories were printed on paper.”

Asimov goes on to write that young Margie and Tommy“turned the pages, which were yellow and
crinkly, and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of
moving the way they were supposed to – on a screen, you know. And then, when
they turned back to the page before, it had the same words on it that it had when
they read it the first time.”

This short story, even though included in this collection
from 1963, first appeared in 1951! Isn’t that one of the things we love about
sci-fi – the often prophetic view into a possible future?

So you never know what small gem is waiting for you on the
thrift store book shelves! Isn’t it
worth taking the time to scan through the titles? What’s the last treasure you
uncovered in the used book section?

Oh – and the story goes on to say that as little Margie and
Tommy were looking through this old paper book, Tommy declared, “What a waste.
When you’re through with the book, you just throw it away, I guess. Our
television screen must have had a million books on it and it’s good for plenty
more. I wouldn’t throw it away.”

Thursday, April 23, 2015

I'm getting ready to get in the RV and head to Orange County California for a Christian Writer's conference. It's the first time I have been to that one but I hear they do a nice job with it.

For years I've done a couple of conferences a month and I do prefer to drive if I can because I genuinely do hate airports. I've tried to start cutting back the last couple of years. It's not like I need to generate submissions, I get a ton of them. I can cut back on one that someone from the agency is already working but it is hard to turn down a small conference that's not too far away and needs me.

Then there is the Colorado Christian Writers Conference May 13-17th. We love that one and have gone there for many years. Marlene puts on a great conference. I'll be at the Tulsa Christian Writers May 20-30th, Inspiration Alive in Amarillo June 11th, and Rose State College in Midwest City OK Sept 18-20th. There's a couple of others I'm not sure about, but I have cut back a bit.

I believe conferences are absolutely essential if we want to write, primarily because they are specifically designed to help us better learn our craft. More than that they give us a chance to interface with other people who really understand what we are doing and what we are going through. Having the support of family and friends is nice, but we really need times when we can interface with other writers, when we can just immerse ourselves in it for a short time.

Long before I became an agent I tried to go to a couple of conferences a year as a writer and it was invaluable to me. It is where I learned the business. There are a lot of them to choose from, some large and well attended, some regional ones that might be right in your own back yard. I mentioned the ones above because I'd love to meet you at one.

What conferences do you like to attend and when and where is it?

And if you haven't been at one, well . . . don't you think it is time that you did?

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Sometimes unforeseen things outside of our control interrupt our lives. Family medical emergencies. Like cancer, or an auto accident, or your child going off their medicine and winding up far away and in a hospital, not in their right mind.

Or a good thing happens, you receive a bonus from work that allows you to take that long dreamed of vacation, but will be away from your desk and unplugged for several weeks.

Perhaps your wife or husband gets a job offer in another state and you must leave your very helpful critique group behind.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

The next time you
find yourself not reading every word, take advantage of the
opportunity. Try to figure what went wrong – why this passage
doesn't hold your attention:

● The author stepped
away from dramatization and dumped a long passage of summary or
backstory.

● She let a character
deliver a speech.

● He wants to explain
something in numbing detail.

● She spent too many
pages exploring a subplot instead of advancing the story.

Whatever the
problems, store them in a self-editor's checklist, and use that list
to examine the nearly complete pages of your work in progress.

If you're
fortunate, you'll find pages to revise. But don't trust yourself. You
have blind spots – especially about your own work.

That's where beta
readers come in. Or they should.

I doubt the author
of the nonfiction manuscript I recently edited used beta readers. Or
heeded their advice. Most of Chapter 2 expounded basic information
his target readers should already know. It interrupted the flow
between Chapters 1 and 3, and he'd done nothing to set it in context.

He was impassioned
about the information, and the entire chapter sat squarely in his
blind spot. After a paragraph or two, readers will skim. If the
author is fortunate, they'll peek ahead to Chapter 3 – and check
back in.

If you've secured
an agent and anticipate traditional publishing, you're working with a
safety net that independent authors may bypass. But you're working
with gatekeepers who set the bar high.

Monday, April 20, 2015

“I
think I’ll sit down and write a novel. It will be a bestseller in just weeks. I’m
already planning how to spend the money!”

I don’t
know about the rest of you as writers, but I have to admit, with a slight
variation, this did go through my mind at some point. Have I ever said I’m
pretty honest? That was over twenty years ago. I’ve since published six novels
and two novellas. Have another releasing in December, but I’m not rich yet. Don’t
have a bestseller, and am still waiting to save up enough to spend all at once
on something awesome.

But I
write! I no longer try to do it fast. I try to do it…well.

I try
to understand the changes that have taken place the last few years and
incorporate them into my writing instead of fighting them. I work on deep POV
and try to make my characters stronger, better, more believable. I want the
plot to flow, make sense, transition well. In other words, I have a better clue
where I’m going and how I plan to get there.

As an
agent, I expect the same from the authors I work with. I don’t make suggestions
and send changes only to let them know and then see the work back on my desk
two hours later. “A complete rewrite? No problem, Linda. I’ll have it to you by
morning.”

They
take their time to get it right. Or at the least, make it better.

If
your intent is to be the next Brandilyn Collins or Ted Dekker overnight, I don’t
want to see your proposal unless you’re doing the work to go with it. And even
then, only if you have a sincere heart that is willing to learn.

However,
if you want to be a bestselling millionaire by next week, and you have the
story to get you there, we’ll talk about it! $$$ Huge smile on my face!

Seriously,
there is no substitute for hard work. A teachable spirit. A willing heart to
learn and learn and learn, and then work some more!

MEET THE HARTLINE AGENTS

Joyce Hart, Owner and principal agent

Joyce Hart, owner and principal agent of Hartline Literary Agency has been a literary agent for more than a decade. She was formerly the vice president of marketing of an inspirational publishing company and as the president of Hartline Marketing has nearly thirty-two years of successful experience marketing and promoting books. Joyce has been a pioneer in selling high-quality fiction to the inspirational market and has built an excellent rapport with leading inspirational publishers. A member of ACFW, and the National Association of Professional Women, Joyce is a graduate of Open Bible College, Des Moines, IA now merged with Eugene Bible College in Eugene, Oregon. Joyce is based at Hartline Literary's Pittsburgh headquarters.

Diana Flegal, Agent

Diana currently lives in Asheville NC. A Bible College major in Missions and Anthropology, Diana has been a medical missionary to Haiti, a women's speaker and bible study leader. One of her life's highlights has been teaching apologetics to high school students as preparatory for college. Avid reader and intuitive editor, Diana's represents nonfiction and well written fiction. She has a passion for getting great writers published.

Jim Hart, Agent

Jim Hart is looking for authors who can write unique and engaging fictional suspense, romance, women’s fiction, historical fiction and some sci-fi. Jim is also interested in non-fiction regarding church growth, Christian living, and self-help. Keep in mind that non-fiction topics require a certain level of credentials, experience and expertise. The author will need an appropriate platform to present a non-fiction proposal.

Currently Jim is not looking at children’s, young adult or Biblical fiction proposals.

He holds a degree in Production Journalism and worked for twenty years in direct mail advertising before taking a job with an urban social services agency, where he worked for twelve years. All during his professional career, Jim has served with the local church doing youth ministry and music/worship ministry. He is a credentialed minister with the Assemblies of God, and serves part-time as Worship Pastor in his local church in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Linda Glaz, Agent

Linda is an experienced editor, reviewer and writer, and for a couple of years was a final reader for Wild Rose Press, then for White Rose Publishing and she worked as an editorial assistant for Hartline Agent Terry Burns. She has judged for numerous contests including the Genesis for the American Christian Fiction Writers, as well as the Emily Award for the West Houston Chapter of the Romance Writers of America. She has been on the faculty for Faithwriters.com annual conference, Maranatha, and is slated for numerous others in 2013. Linda understands writers because she's a writer herself with 4 books releasing in 2013.linda@hartlineliterary.comhttp://lindaglaz.blogspot.com/

Andy Scheer, Agent

Andy has a wealth of experience as a publishing professional with over 18 years as the managing editor of Moody Magazine, 8 years as the managing editor for the Christian Writer’s Guild, and as a free-lance writer and editor. He is a frequent instructor at writing conferences around the country. A journalism graduate from Colorado State University, he also attended Denver Seminary. Andy is a consummate professional and will be a great addition to the Hartline team.